Canadian PVC producers looking to exports

Abstract

When Esso Chemical Canada comes on stream—probably next month—with its 50,000 metric-ton-per-year addition to its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant at Sarnia, Ont., it will increase total Canadian PVC capacity 17% to 346,000 metric tons annually. More important, it will raise capacity even further above demand in Canada, which is expected to run about 200,000 metric tons this year. This, in turn, will make it even more important for Canadian PVC producers to secure export markets for their products. The burden to do this will fall especially heavily on Diamond Shamrock Alberta Gas (DSAG), the sole Canadian PVC producer in western Canada. DSAG is owned jointly by Diamond Shamrock and Nova, an Alberta Corp. Nova also owns Alberta Gas Chemicals, but operating responsibility for the DSAG PVC plant has been given to Novacor Chemicals, another Nova subsidiary formed to direct, control, and eventually own Nova's petrochemical interests. DSAG has a 100,000 metric-ton PVC plant at ...